MAG App Object Scripts: Art By Culture or Date - Descriptions 10/14/11 1 American Art: 20th Century American Art Only a single work of American art appears on this version of the app, but be sure to visit the rest of the American collection on the 1st floor. Ancient Middle Eastern Art At the Crossroads See selected artworks produced up to 4,000 years ago by artists and artisans from the earliest societies of the Middle East and western Asia. Chinese Art Arts of Asia See a selection of traditional artworks produced by artists working over centuries of different dynasties and influences in ancient and medieval China. Egyptian Art Berkeley Gallery of Ancient Art Explore the decorative and functional works of art produced for daily, ceremonial, and funerary purposes in ancient Egypt. The Helen H. Berkeley Gallery is made possible by Helen H. Berkeley, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts and public funding secured by New York State Senator Joseph E. Robach. Etruscan Art The Helen H. Berkeley Gallery of Ancient Art See a selection of artworks representing the unique characteristics of the Etruscan civilization of ancient Italy. The Helen H. Berkeley Gallery is made possible by Helen H. Berkeley, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts and public funding secured by New York State Senator Joseph E. Robach. European Art: 19th Century European Art Only a single work of art from this period appears on this version of the app, but look for additional works of later European art in other areas of the 2nd Floor. MAG App Object Scripts: Art By Culture or Date - Descriptions 10/14/11 2 European Medieval Art European Art The period from about 1100 to 1400 in Europe is known as the Medieval Period, or the Middle Ages. Previously thought of as a "dark age" of lost knowledge, disease, and warfare, the period is now recognized for its own remarkable and distinctive arts, many supported by the Catholic church. Greek Art Berkeley Gallery of Ancient Art Explore a selection of artworks representing the beginnings and the legacy of the ancient Greek civilization. The Helen H. Berkeley Gallery is made possible by Helen H. Berkeley, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts and public funding secured by New York State Senator Joseph E. Robach. Indian & SE Asian Art Arts of Asia Selected works of art from India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Cambodia represent diverse yet related traditions, influences, and beliefs. Islamic Art At the Crossroads Explore a selection of decorative and functional ceramics, Medieval manuscripts, and ritual objects representing the spread of the Islamic faith and its art forms through the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa. Italian Renaissance Art European Art The period from about 1400 to 1600 in Italy is now known as the Renaissance. It featured a flowering of culture and art that looked back on the classical arts of Rome and Greece. Japanese Art Arts of Asia View a small selection of artworks made in Japan between the 1500s and the late 1800s, a period of cultural flowering and sharing known as the Edo Period. MAG App Object Scripts: Art By Culture or Date - Descriptions 10/14/11 3 Northern Renaissance Art European Art During the period from about 1400 to 1600 in northern Europe, especially Germany, France, and the Low Countries (modern Netherlands and Belgium), the arts incorporated influences brought north from Italy, yet retained features unique to Northern arts. Roman Art Berkeley Gallery of Ancient Art See a variety of material objects and works of art representing the civilization of ancient Rome and its reach across the ancient world The Helen H. Berkeley Gallery is made possible by Helen H. Berkeley, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts and public funding secured by New York State Senator Joseph E. Robach. MAG App Object Scripts: American 20th C 8/26/11 1 American Art of the 20th Century Only a single work of American art appears on this version of the app, but be sure to visit the rest of the American collection on the 1st floor. Memory William Ordway Partridge (American , 1861 - 1930) , 1914 Gift of Mrs. James Sibley Watson, 13.12 Cloaked, hooded, and over life size, Memory A Fitting Tribute A View from MAG’s Past quietly dominates the space of the Foyer. She Commissioned by Emily Sibley Watson, the In this historic photograph, Memory stands on the cradles a large urn in her arms, a funerary founder of the Memorial Art Gallery, Memory is back wall of the current Renaissance gallery. She reference from ancient art. Her downcast a tribute to her deceased son James G. Averell. presides over a sculpture display that includes "casts features, shaded by her hood, give Memory a The statue was one of the first works of art to in plaster of the most beautiful pieces of ancient sad yet dignified appearance that fits her role: enter the Gallery’s permanent collection when it sculpture,” a replica collection no longer seen in the personification of a mother’s grief. opened to the public in 1913. modern museums. very limited space here!!! Image = zoom view of Statue Image = The Hall of Casts, ca. 1914 About the Artist: Who was James Averell? William Ordway Partridge James George (“J.G.”) Averell was the son of William Ordway Partridge ranks as one of Gallery founder Emily Sibley Watson and her America’s most prominent sculptors of the first husband. Averell studied architecture at early 1900s. Harvard, as well as on travels in Europe. His career was tragically short-lived, as he died of Born in Paris to American parents, he studied typhoid fever at age 27. art there, as well as in Florence and Rome. He became best known for monumental public Image = Portrait of James G. Averell, sculptures of literary and historical figures such base of Memory, 13.13 as Shakespeare and Ulysses S. Grant. MAG App Object Scripts: Anc Mid East + AAC 8/29/11 1 Ancient Middle Eastern Art See selected artworks produced up to 4,000 years ago by artists and artisans from the earliest societies of the Middle East and western Asia. Cuneiform Tablet with Case Sumerian, Ur III (ca. ca. 2094 - 2047 BCE), 2049 BCE Gift of Mr. Gordon Thompson in memory of his father, William G. Thompson, D.D., a student of Babylonian archaeology, 54.58.4.1-2 Translation from Sumerian: Receipt Required? Look carefully; this tiny clay object is easy to "[A number of] royal gurs of barley (gur = This small, rather plain-looking clay object is actually a miss, at just about 1½ inches square! about a bushel), received from Ebagar of the 4,000 year old receipt proving payment of taxes. town of Bazi; recorded by the scribe Lubimu, • Notice the impressions left in the clay of the The dots, lines, and wedge shapes on this 4,000 son of Urigalim, in the month of the barley "envelope" by the cuneiform writing on the inner year old clay tablet are an example of cuneiform harvest, the year that the city of Urbillum was tablet. (say coo-NAY-ih-form), some of the world’s devastated [by King Shulgi’s army]." • The message, or in this case a receipt for taxes paid, earliest writing. The records of entire Middle was inscribed into the still-damp clay of this tablet. Eastern civilizations, from government accounts • When the small clay tablet with its inscribed message and business transactions to literary works and was dry, a second layer of damp clay was fitted around personal correspondence, were written on millions it, forming a primitive "security envelope." The of ancient clay tablets. message was inscribed on the outer “envelope” as well, and dried. If the inner and outer messages did not match, it proved that someone had tampered with the information. • These red ink numbers are a later addition to the object. They are accession numbers, added by the Gallery to identify and keep track of the object in collection records. MAG App Object Scripts: Anc Mid East + AAC 8/29/11 2 Worshipper Bearing an Animal Offering Mesopotamian, possibly Old Babylonian, ca. 1900 -1500 BCE R.T. Miller Fund, 45.60 The man shown on this tiny molded clay plaque Object of Devotion wears the fringed garment, round cap, and long Worshippers in many cultures hoped to assure their curled beard typically worn by men in the ancient gods' favor by presenting offerings, including choice Babylonian culture. He cradles a small goat animals, fine foods, and token objects known as intended as a gift to the temple of one of his gods, votives. This clay plaque may have served as a to be sacrificed or added to the flocks maintained votive to a god, as well as "proof" of the ritual by the priests. performance and its accompanying gift. Image = zoom Tribute Bearer Achaemenid Persian; Made in Persepolis, ca. 650 – 330 BCE R.T. Miller Fund, 44.1 This man from the land of the Medes (say Celebrating the New Year Palace Processions MEEDS), now in northern Iran, wears a typical The covered vessel carried by this palace servant This relief figure was originally situated on a Median horseman’s costume: fitted coat, trousers, likely holds some delicacy intended for the king’s stairway, in a grouping very similar to this example and soft felt helmet. He once joined the hundreds banquet table. still in place in the palace complex at Persepolis. of carved, brightly painted figures representing servants, nobles, and foreign dignitaries, marching Dignitaries, nobles, and foreign rulers descended on Image = From the Palace of Xerxes; western along ceremonial staircases at the ancient Persian Persepolis in March as guests of the king to stairway, east face of the parapet, northern flight.